Ingmar Would Be Proud An old-world hotelier carries the Maidstone Arms into the 21st century. By Kelly Ann Smith
The Living Room in the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton bills itself as a “slow food restaurant and lounge.” Unlike many businesses that use trendy catch phrases for marketing purposes, the Living Room and the entire Maidstone Hotel follow through on their claims
Part of what makes this true is that the first phase of the historic Main Street property’s renovation (the second phase will start next winter) has succeeded in creating a pillowy interior that encourages visitors to sit, forget their BlackBerry and take a breath—and a meditative exterior complete with Buddha statue and chef’s garden.
But part depends on the new owner, a Swedish businesswoman with a reputation for celebrating traditional ways even as she updates historic properties. “I adore old buildings and enjoy incorporating new trends and quirky things into old-fashioned establishments as the contrast entices and inspires generations to come,” says Jenny Ljungberg, who bought the Maidstone Arms last year, and who owns five larger (but similar) properties in Sweden under her company, c/o Hotels. “I thought the exterior was just exquisite but that the interior needed some love.”
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Respect for tradition aside, the hotel now boasts amenities like central heat and air conditioning, flat-screen television sets, iPod docks and double-paned windows to cut out the traffic noise. (It’s not quite the 1600s.) But from the new wine cellar to the wine and fudge in the mini bars of the inn’s 19 rooms, the new Maidstone uses local and organic ingredients, products and recycled materials wherever possible.
“The building was quite lopsided but has now been lifted up from below in order to stand for many years to come,” she says, “The property seems to enjoy the changes as the new changes fit in quite naturally.” Springs architect Rossetti Perchik worked on the renovations with the owner. “They did a real good job,” he says. “They kept it the same only now it’s better and more beautiful and has a Swedish touch.”
When lifting the building, Perchik noticed that the stone foundation dated back to the original structure and contained parts of old mills. “They used whatever they could,” he says. “You could see the grooves in the hacked-off granite stones and circular edges used to crack the wheat husks.”
Ljungberg thought perhaps some of the larger stones in the foundation were brought over on a ship from England as ballast to stabilize the boat. According to Up and Down Main Street: An Informal History of East Hampton and Its Old Houses, written by Jeanette Rattray in 1968, “The property, most of which is now the Maidstone Arms at 207 Main Street, belonged to the Bond family in the earliest days; but that name soon died out here.”
The Bond name may have died out in East Hampton, but, as I found out in my own genealogical research, Robert and Jane Bond’s daughter Mary married Thomas Osborn, who Rattray credits with having owned the property in 1668. It then stayed in the Osborn or Osborne family until 1924. The Osborns from Maidstone, England, were tanners and continued that trade in East Hampton but like many locals today they wore many hats. For one, the Osborns promoted the local whaling companies. Indeed, Oliver S. Osborn headed the crew that captured the last right whale off Wainscott in 1907.
It wasn’t until the mid 1800s, while also running a livery out of the property, that W. L. Osborn and his family “took boarders in their big house on the little hill overlooking Town Pond,” according to Up and Down Main Street. Their son B. M. Osborne, a real estate agent, and his wife, “Mis’Annie,” ran the Osborne House for 32 years. When B. M. Osborne retired, the Hampton Hotels Corporation took over the property and renamed it the Maidstone Arms. At that time, the porch and dormers were added to the classic Greek Revival.
Today, when you enter the building via the front porch, you notice a new coat of white paint and streamlined furniture. Several hostesses greet you in black cocktail dresses with big bows at the collar. The warmth you should feel walking into an historic inn was lacking, but that should come with time.
Nadia Tolstoy, a Swedish interior decorator, was tapped to infuse the old inn with a bit of color. The dining room is painted turquoise with olive trim. Chairs are covered with bold prints. Pillows and wooly throws scattered throughout the lounge add warmth. Even the restroom on the main floor showcases a collection of Ingmar Bergman film stills.
In the front of the house, a wall between the office and dining area was taken down to create a more open space. A large marble bar is now the focal point as you walk through the front door. Next winter the property will close for phase-two renovations and more walls will come down. By next season guests will be able to see straight through the dining area into the open kitchen.
One of the two completely renovated guest rooms is named after textile designer Joseph Frank. His linens cover the bed in royal blues. Red flowers and black birds cover the walls of the en-suite bathroom, which is equipped with a clawfoot tub. A navy linen settee is positioned in the bay window with views to the garden, reworked to include a Buddha statue that overlooks a quiet area for yoga and meditation and the chef’s herb garden.
Chef James Carpenter, 43, has been around long enough to know what satisfies East End palates. He has worked at Savanna’s in Southampton, Della Femina’s in East Hampton and the American Hotel in Sag Harbor. He grew up in upstate New York and attended Johnson & Wales Culinary Institute.
Chef Carpenter and Ljungberg were on the same page in wanting to help support the community. The chef not only brings his talent to the table but also his relationship with East End farmers. To prove his point, he rattles off a list of local purveyors including Art Ludlow cheeses, Mecox Bay Dairy, Satur Farms, Balsam Farms, Early Girl Farm, EE CO Farm and Bees Needs, on a recent visit to the dining room.
“It was refreshing that the owner feels the same way,” he says about the preference for proximity, from the organic celery and onions used for chicken stock to the Wölffer wines, Hampton Coffee Company and Fat Ass Fudge stocking the mini bars.
“It helps the local economy,” he says, “and I know my mushrooms are cleaner in flavor than those grown with pesticides and all those things.” Chef Carpenter buys mushrooms from grower David Falkowski, who works the local farmers market circuit and was just as impressed with the restaurant’s efforts.
“They spend a lot of time here,” he says one recent Friday at the farmers market in Nick and Toni’s parking lot. “They really follow through with everything that they say.” The sustainability theme even carries to the new wine cellar. The old foundation bricks found in the dirt-floor basement and taken out of the yard found new life in a wine cellar—a brisk 59°—which houses almost 100 wine cages numbered with brass tags to be reserved for members who want to store their own wine there.
Thirty percent of the wine list is from New York State, but when we visit they are only offering one local red wine by the glass for $15. Prices are on the high end for the working class year-rounder, but it is the perfect place for a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary. Still, on a summer night, the dining room was packed by 7:30 p.m.
When you sit down to dinner, as in most restaurants, the servers ask the table what kind of water they want. But at the Living Room, the wait staff is trained to expound on the house water filtration system, as if being printed on the front of the menu was not enough.
It’s a technology widely used throughout Scandinavia, and yet another case when Ljungberg filters the local vernacular (East Hampton town water, in this case) through her sustainability sensibility. Using ultraviolet light, the system offers room temperature, cold, still or sparkling water served in recycled glass bottles. “The only one in town,” chirped our waitress.
Back in Sweden, from 1829 to 1907, King Oscar reigned. And his favorite dish, veal Oscar, is served at the Living Room restaurant. The veal medallions with asparagus, lobster and a béarnaise sauce, accompanied by paperthin potato gratin, melted in my mouth during our visit. The veal as well as the lobster was the most tender I’ve ever tasted. Tiny potato pancakes with crème fraîche and American caviar were good but the strawberry and rhubarb dessert was even better. My husband’s mushroom appetizer was the best. He ate his dessert so quickly, I didn’t even see it. I think it had to do with chocolate.
Kelly Ann Smith runs locally-owned holdout A Little of What You Fancy, in East Hampton, and writes from her home in Springs.
